1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to gaming and gaming printers, more specifically to a modular gaming transaction printers for grayscale printing.
2. Background
Over the last several years, cashless enabled games have found an increasing acceptance and use in the gaming industry with both the players, who enjoy the speed of play and ease of transporting their winnings around the casino, and the casinos who have realized significant labor savings in the form of reduced coin hopper reloads in the games, and an increase in revenue due to speed of play. Practical field experience with the application has illustrated that there are areas for improvement in current printer designs and implementation within the game.
One area for improvement relates to the print head of the printer. Currently, the print heads in related printers are limited to a palette of one color pixels, meaning a black and white image. This invention offers an improvement to existing methods and apparatus by the use of a print head capable of printing grayscale.
Another area for improvement relates to the paper tray. Currently, only one paper tray is in use in related printers. This presents a challenge should a gaming establishment desire to use more than one supply of paper, for instance one paper supply for coupons and another for vouchers.
Another area for improvement relates to the printing of both vouchers and promotional coupons. Currently, paper is pulled from one paper tray for both vouchers and coupons. Additionally, the voucher must be printed first, followed by one or more coupons.
Another area for improvement relates to the printer firmware. Currently, a firmware version must be created for each worldwide language to meet the various domestic and international requirements for gaming. Additionally, a firmware version must be created for each custom variation of a firmware version based on regional or jurisdictional specific information requirements, such as dual barcodes. The problem with the current situation is that as the gaming market continues to grow, any future expansion may become unmanageable as multiple firmware versions based on one firmware version will exist. This potentially unmanageable situation may be detrimental to a Gaming Establishment specifically since regulatory requirements and approvals are based on firmware versions. The use of the wrong version may cause the shut down of a Gaming Establishment by a regulatory agency.
Another area for improvement is supporting multiple host and multiple game protocols. Currently, a firmware version must exist for each protocol. These protocols include RS232, USB, Netplex, EPI, and Ethernet, among others. A drawback to the current situation is that firmware, including required communication drivers and jurisdictional content, must be reloaded each time a printer is placed to another system with a different protocol.